Everything you might want to know.

Yes. Every one of the 10 daily puzzles is free to play with no sign-up, no account, and no credit card. The site is funded by display ads shown around the gameplay area (never inside the game itself).

10 daily puzzles covering word, logic, math, memory, and spatial reasoning: Word Scramble, Connections, Sudoku, Math Sprint, Memory Match, Type Racer, Anagram Hunt, Echo, Unfold, and Daily Trivia.

We have a daily Mini Crossword (5×5) — free, no paywall, new puzzle every day. A full 15×15 crossword is on the longer roadmap; for now the Mini paired with Anagram Hunt covers most word-construction appetites.

Some games offer skip tokens or hints (notably Sudoku). We don’t provide auto-solvers — the brain exercise is the point. If you’re stuck, read the strategy guide for that game.

Yes. Every past daily puzzle stays playable forever. Visit the calendar archive or browse a specific game’s past 30 days at /archive/<game>/.

Most are middle-difficulty — solvable in 2–5 minutes by an average player, with satisfying stretch. Sudoku and Unfold have Easy/Medium/Hard levels. Word puzzles scale with the player’s vocabulary.

Complete any daily puzzle and your streak ticks up by one. The streak is shared across all 10 games — playing any one game today keeps the streak alive. Miss a calendar day and it resets to zero.

Either you missed a calendar day, or your browser cleared its local storage (private browsing mode, aggressive cookie deletion, new device). The streak lives locally in the browser, not on our servers, so clearing browser data clears the streak.

Not yet. Because there’s no account system, each browser has its own streak. Cross-device sync would require login, which we’ve deliberately avoided so far.

3, 7, 14, 30, 50, 100, 200, and 365 days trigger celebration animations. The achievement is yours; we don’t post it anywhere public.

Yes, on any modern smartphone or tablet. The site is mobile-first — no functionality is desktop-only.

iPhone/iPad: open in Safari → tap the Share button → tap Add to Home Screen. Android: open in Chrome → tap the three-dot menu → tap Install app (or Add to Home Screen). The site will also offer an install prompt automatically after a couple visits.

Partially. After your first visit, the core pages and puzzle files are cached by the service worker, so games work offline. Past-day puzzles and the leaderboard require connection.

No. Never. You can play every game and track streaks without signing up. Data is stored locally in your browser.

Minimal. Your game progress is saved in your browser’s localStorage and never leaves your device. Google Analytics tracks aggregate usage (only if you accept the cookie banner). If you subscribe to email, your address is stored by Kit (our email provider). We never sell or share any data. Full details: privacy policy.

Yes. After your first completed puzzle, a modal appears offering an email subscription. One email per day with a link to today’s puzzles. Unsubscribe in one click anytime.

Game data: clear your browser’s local storage for puzzlecottage.com. Email data: unsubscribe from any email we’ve sent you, or write to hello@puzzlecottage.com for a full deletion request.

Ads are how the site stays free. Google AdSense serves display ads around gameplay — never inside the puzzle itself. No interstitial ads, no rewarded videos. If you use an ad blocker, that’s fine — we don’t detect it or paywall you.

Possibly someday, only if it’s valuable enough to be worth the price and only as an optional add-on. The base free experience will never become paywalled.

Ads alone. No investors, no paid content, no sponsored puzzles. Independent project.

Puzzle Cottage has 10 daily puzzles (NYT has 6 with 3 paywalled), full archive access (NYT’s archive is subscription-only), and no account required. See our detailed NYT Games comparison.

Yes — our Word Scramble uses the same guess-with-color-feedback mechanic. 6 letters instead of 5, and with archive access. See the full Wordle comparison.

Yes — our Connections uses the same 16-words-4-groups mechanic with unlimited past puzzles. See the full Connections comparison.

We chose the 15 formats that (1) work well at 2–5 minutes of play, (2) train different cognitive skills, (3) can be generated or curated sustainably. Puzzle ideas are welcome — email hello@puzzlecottage.com.